Did I get it right, can one post one´s CSS for reactions and feedback?

In that case, I welcome feedback on my CSS and a small representative snippet from my book. The text here is not my own, just some random stuff from E. Britannica. There is no real continutiy, just a catalog of different, recurring patterns in my book.

(I should perhaps mention that the book is a music manual for youngish singers. English is not my native language, nor is the book written in that language.)

PLEASE NOTE: I am mainly interested in feedback on my CSS (the construction of which is a quite new thing to me). You might have views, even violent ones, on the way I construct my page. I am less interested in that.

I am an writer (that´s how I pay my rent), and not a designer, programmer or typographer. I have noted that typograpy is one of the stiffest, most purist and most resistant to change-domains. I do NOT wish to enter into a polemic about those things.

I have given a lot of thought to how I want my book to look, so please respect that and do not regard me as a thoughtless beginner. Ok?

Sorry for sounding so defensive. I´ve had bad experiences with anal typographers.

PS: In another thread I have discussed footnotes with some of you. In brackets you can see my "solution" to this. I omitted the *-s which otherwise signal "footnote" , so basically what we have at the end of the 4-th paragraph is not a footnote, but auxilary text in smaller case within brackets.

I think that's too large a margin, and you probably don't want it to change with font size. For ebook readers, a minimal margin is usually a better idea, something like 2mm.

Code:

body { font-family: "Garamond"; }

Avoid specifying a font-family unless for some particular technical or stylistic effects. The main text font is probably something the user would like to set him/herself, and not have it forced by the book. Besides, most ebook readers won't have a "Garamond" font available anyway.

Code:

p { text-align: left; }

Personally, I prefer justified text, but I know some people prefer left-aligned, especially in small screens. In any case, that's also something better left to the user, do not set any alignment to normal paragraphs.

Code:

intro { letter-spacing: 0.09em; }

The letter-spacing property is not in the ePub 2.1 spec. It's not a big deal, readers that don't support it (because they are not required too) will just ignore it.

Code:

<p class="tom">&nbsp;</p>

Do not do that. You just want some vertical space, use vertical (top/bottom) margins, or a block element with fixed height. That's not a paragraph and there's no content to have there, don't add vertical space with "empty lines".

Thanks for your valuable input. At least part of my CSS is copied from manuals, etc. that I don´t really understand. For example this one: @page {margin: 1.3em}

Most of your suggestion is about removing stuff.

I have a question about this one, though.

<p class="tom">&nbsp;</p>
>Do not do that. You just want some vertical space, use vertical (top/bottom) margins, or a block element with fixed height. That's not a paragraph and there's no content to have there, don't add vertical space with "empty lines".

Margins of what? Block element...?

I feel freer being able to just insert a blank space, more independent than having to change another element.

<p class="tom">&nbsp;</p>
Do not do that. You just want some vertical space, use vertical (top/bottom) margins, or a block element with fixed height. That's not a paragraph and there's no content to have there, don't add vertical space with "empty lines".